7 June 2017

Last week I got tired of seeing the same woodland birds so I drove north to the scrubby fields of Clarion County.  Thanks to Tony Bruno’s photos I can show you what I saw.

Pennsylvania doesn’t have grasslands like the prairie states but we do have former strip mines planted in grass to recover the land.  As soon as shrubs gain a foothold our grasslands turn into scrubby fields.

Piney Tract and the Curllsville Strips are two great places in Clarion County for grassland and scrub birds.  Here’s my own photo of “the bowl” at Piney Tract, State Gameland 330.  Tony was at Curllsville.

What can you see in habitat like this?

Yellow-breasted chats (Icteria virens), shown at top, are very fond of the thickets.  Easier to hear than they are to see, Tony was lucky to see this chat at Curllsville.  Click here for a sample of their loud song.

Henslow’s sparrows (Ammodramus henslowii) love wide open spaces where the shrubs are stunted.  They perch on twigs so small that I tend to overlook the birds so I find them by tracking their songs.  It’s amazing how far this simple “fish lips” noise can carry.

Northern harriers (Circus cyaneus) nest on the ground in the scrubby fields.  The brown-colored female is camouflaged at the nest while her gray-colored mate harasses everyone in the area.  A male harrier shouted at me at Piney Tract. Tony encountered this one at Curllsville.

I also heard three prairie warblers (Setophaga discolor) singing from the shrubs at Piney Tract, but I could not find them.  Here’s what I would have seen if I’d waited longer. This is what I heard.

Now’s a good time to visit the scrubby fields while the birds are singing.  Click these links for directions to Piney Tract and the Curllsville Strips.

(scenery photo of Piney Tract by Kate St.John; all bird photos by Anthony Bruno)

p.s.  Why are there strip mines in Clarion County?  There are three coal seams that tilt downward from north to south under western Pennsylvania. The seams touch the surface along the lacy yellow edges on this DCNR map.  Clarion County is so lacy it’s hard to find it under the word “MAIN”.